The Mexican Herald: Outpost of Empire, 1895-1915

Abstract

In the globalization of our economy, scant attention has been paid by scholars to the proliferation of English-language newspapers around the world designed to attract or protect American or British investments. This is a study of one such newspaper, the Mexican Herald (1895-1915), one of the early handmaidens of business that presaged the multinational corporations of today. Founded by an American, Frederick J. Guernsey, the Mexican Herald served an enclave of 25,000 American businessmen in Mexico City. The newspaper was dismayed by the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which threatened to wipe out foreign holdings. In particular, the Herald targeted Emiliano Zapata, the agrarian reform leader, for his unremitting attack on the large landowners and therefore private property in general. The Herald supported two reactionary regimes and sent a delegation to Washington, DC before being closed in 1915 by the Revolution which it never understood.